Create a user parameter for a dynamic block
Hi,
Answer to both your question is not doable at the moment.
Sorry for the bad news.
Regards,
Philippe.
Philippe Leefsma
Developer Consultant
Developer Technical Services
Global Subscription & Support
Autodesk EMEA
Philippe Leefsma
Developer Technical Services
Autodesk Developer Network
Accepted solution
Hi Rick,
If you look carefully, then you should see that I actually took part in writting most of this parametric high level API 🙂
There is no naming change between 2010 and 2012, just some more parametric functionalities, sorry I should have mentionned that, but I got confused by your question about dynamic parameters:
So a dynamic parameter is a property that controls something, length for example, inside a dynamic block. I don't think you can set those to share a commomn global value, they are basically independent double values.
A user parameter, or associative variable (AssocVariable in API naming) is different. That's a variable part of the associative network that can be set to a global value or an equation involving other AssocVariables.
I believe that the scope of those AssocVariable is limited to each block definition, that means you cannot use a variable from model space in a block or vice versa, or between blocks, however you may want to confirm that.
I hope it provides a little more context, feel free to send me your feedback on that or on the high level API (you can update the blog post, it might be the easiest way, it will reach me anyway).
Regards,
Philippe.
Philippe Leefsma
Developer Technical Services
Autodesk Developer Network
Accepted solution
Hi Rick,
There is a known issue with the .Net API concerning not updating the block automatically after modifying the dynamic properties.
Here is a workaround I was providing for a similar previous request, unfortunatly it involves invoking some ObjectARX code:
A possible solution would be to modify the property using the same .net code that you provided and rely on an external function imported from an ARX module that will “refresh” the dynamic block reference properties. You don’t need to actually load the arx module in order to get it working, you just have to reference the *.arx dll on your disk.
Here is the arx code I have to refresh the block properties:
void RefreshDynamicBlkProperty(AcDbObjectId blockRefId)
{
AcDbEntity* pEnt = NULL;
if (acdbOpenObject(pEnt, blockRefId , AcDb::kForRead) != Acad::eOk)
{
acutPrintf(L"\nError opening entity.");
if(pEnt) pEnt->close();
return;
}
AcDbBlockReference *pBlkRef = AcDbBlockReference::cast(pEnt);
// initialise a AcDbDynBlockReference from the object id of the blockreference
AcDbDynBlockReference* pDynBlkRef = new AcDbDynBlockReference(pBlkRef->objectId());
//Don't forget to close the blockreference here,
//otherwise you wont be able to modify properties
pEnt->close();
if (pDynBlkRef)
{
AcDbDynBlockReferencePropertyArray blkPropAry;
pDynBlkRef->getBlockProperties(blkPropAry);
Acad::ErrorStatus err;
AcDbDynBlockReferenceProperty blkProp;
for(long lIndex1=0L ; lIndex1<blkPropAry.length() ; ++lIndex1)
{
blkProp = blkPropAry[lIndex1];
AcDbEvalVariant value = blkProp.value();
if(!blkProp.readOnly())
{
if((err = blkProp.setValue(value)) != Acad::eOk)
{
acutPrintf(L"\nError setting property value...");
}
}
}
//Don't forget to delete this reference, otherwise you will have problems.
delete pDynBlkRef;
}
}
Last thing you need to do on the arx side is to export this method. To do that you have to declare in one of the header (StdAfx.h for example) the following export:
extern "C" void _declspec(dllexport) RefreshDynamicBlkProperty(AcDbObjectId blockRefId);
And add to your arx project a .def file that looks like this:
LIBRARY "asdkArxMain"
EXPORTS RefreshDynamicBlkProperty
You just need to import this method in your .net dll and call it at the end of your command as follow:
const string arxPath = "C:\\My Documents\\AutoCAD\\ARX\\asdkArxMain.arx";
[DllImport(arxPath,
CharSet = CharSet.Unicode,
CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl,
EntryPoint = "RefreshDynamicBlkProperty")]
private static extern void RefreshDynamicBlkProperty(ObjectId blockRefId);
[CommandMethod("SetDynamicBlkProperty")]
static public void SetDynamicBlkProperty()
{
Document doc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
Editor ed = doc.Editor;
PromptEntityOptions peo = new PromptEntityOptions("Select a dynamic block reference...");
peo.SetRejectMessage("\nMust be a block reference...");
peo.AddAllowedClass(typeof(BlockReference), true);
PromptEntityResult per = ed.GetEntity(peo);
if (per.Status != PromptStatus.OK)
return;
using (Transaction Tx = doc.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
{
BlockReference oBlkRef = Tx.GetObject(per.ObjectId, OpenMode.ForWrite) as BlockReference;
if (oBlkRef.IsDynamicBlock)
{
DynamicBlockReferencePropertyCollection oProperties = oBlkRef.DynamicBlockReferencePropertyCollection;
BlockTableRecord oBtr = Tx.GetObject(oBlkRef.BlockTableRecord, OpenMode.ForRead) as BlockTableRecord;
ed.WriteMessage("\nBlock Record: " + oBtr.Name + "\n");
foreach (DynamicBlockReferenceProperty oProp in oProperties)
{
object[] values = oProp.GetAllowedValues();
ed.WriteMessage("\n - PropertyName: " + oProp.PropertyName + " UnitsType: " + oProp.UnitsType.ToString());
for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; ++i)
{
ed.WriteMessage("\n . Value[" + i.ToString() + "]: " + values[i].ToString());
}
if (oProp.PropertyName == "Origin")
{
Point3d origin = (Point3d)oProp.Value;
ed.WriteMessage("\n . Origin: " + origin.ToString());
Point3d originWCS = origin.TransformBy(oBlkRef.BlockTransform);
ed.WriteMessage("\n . Origin WCS: " + originWCS.ToString());
}
//Switch Property
if (oProp.PropertyName == "Visibility" && !oProp.ReadOnly)
{
if (oProp.Value.ToString() == values[0].ToString()) oProp.Value = values[1];
else oProp.Value = values[0];
}
if (oProp.PropertyName == "Angle" && !oProp.ReadOnly)
{
oProp.Value = 10.0 * 3.1416 / 180.0;
}
}
}
Tx.Commit();
RefreshDynamicBlkProperty(oBlkRef.Id);
}
}
Philippe Leefsma
Developer Technical Services
Autodesk Developer Network